Even before the clock hit high noon, this competition was unlike any other in Logos history. You see, when National Sales Representative Ed Hale heard about the contest he knew he had to enter. There was just one small problem – he lives in Escondido, CA and the competition was taking place at Logos headquarters in Bellingham, Washington. In order for Ed enter the competition he needed to figure out a way to get his chili to the Pacific Northwest.

The story could only end one of two ways: either this would turn into a messy disaster at the post-office or Ed’s chili would win and he would enter cook-off immortality. The result? Ed won the chili cook-off, got the girl and is selling his story to 20th Century Fox for millions.

And that was just in the “Mild Chili” category. This year’s competition required contestants to declare their chili as being “mild” or “real”. The “Real Chili” gold medal went to Scott Sanders of Logos’ Electronic Text Development department. This was a great send off for Scott as it was his last day working at Logos. Scott will be taking his ‘Roasted Robot Chili’ on the road as he bikes around the northwest for the next couple weeks. All this made for an memorable event and a great time for all involved.

Check out the chili-rific pictures below!

The contestants make their final preparations before the competition begins

Unofficial winner of the “best chili name” category.

While techies around the country lined up for their iPhone our sole attention was on chili.

We’ve completely updated, corrected and revised the ESV NT Reverse Interlinear. We’ve also made a few enhancements. You can download the updated resource from Tools | Libronix Update, straight within your Logos Bible Software.
Not sure what a Reverse Interlinear is or why you’d want to use it? Check out this description on the Logos 3 – Top 20 Features page. Reverse Interlinears are the #1 feature on this top-20 feature list, so if you’re unaware of how they work … you should probably check it out and see what the fuss is all about.
What did we do to the ESV NT Reverse Interlinear and why did we do it?
Well, first remember that the ESV NT Reverse Interlinear is available in print as well. Part of the process of creating the print edition was a complete review of the alignment, making corrections and clearing up some underlying textual issues.
This update incorporates all of these changes, clearing up a vast number of the alignment issues that have been reported since the original release. Additionally, the few places where the ESV NT deviates from the underlying NA27 Greek New Testament are also now accounted for. One example is found in 1Co 2.1:

The word translated “testimony” in the ESV assumes a Greek text that uses the word μαρτύριον. The asterisk to the left of the word indicates that the NA27 varies here. If you hover or click the asterisk, you’ll see the following:

NA27μυστήριον for μαρτύριον

This is the same footnote you’ll see in the print edition at this point. It indicates that the NA27 text has a different word (μυστήριον, or “mystery”).
If you’re interested in locating all of the places where the text underlying the ESV New Testament and the NA27 differ, you can just click the Search button (assuming the ESV NT Rev Int is the active resource) and type in: “footnote:NA27″ (minus the quotes). This search finds all the places where the text ‘NA27′ occurs within the ‘footnote’ field. You’ll get a list of 151 occurrences in 139 verses.
So, again, what are the advantages of the update?

Better alignment with the Greek text

Notes as to where the ESV NT assumes a different underlying Greek text

So grab the update (again, just use Tools | Libronix Update from within your Logos Bible Software) and start using it today!Update (2007-06-29): In response to some comments, I believe the update went live on June 28. If you’re unsure if you’ve already downloaded it, you can run Tools | Libronix Update again — if you need it, you’ll be able to download it. If you’d rather skip Tools | Libronix Update you can grab it via FTP. Look for the file ESVNTREVINT.lbxlls at ftp://ftp.logos.com/lbxbooks.

How does the “greatest story ever told”—what C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein referred to as “true myth”—get picked up and echoedin the popular storiesof Western culture?

The Bible and the Arts collection brings together four books with more than 1,300 pages of material exploring the intersection between popular culture artifacts and the Bible.This collection hasbeen gathering interest for some time and is now under development in our electronic text department.

If you’re a fan of the silver screen, a preacher who likes to illustrate or punctuate a sermon with examples from literatureor film, or simply a person who enjoys literature and art, this collection is for you.

These four books would make for a great read straight through. Do a word or phrase search to zero in on an idea. Put the booksinto a defined collection within Passage Guide toserendipitously discoverany references to your Bible passage when running the Passage Guide report.

For example, using a prototype build of Gospel Images in Fiction and Film, I ran Passage Guide on Matthew 2 and came up with 8 links to discussions in the book that touch on that passage. (click for a larger image)

Here we find some great discussion of how the visit of the Magi is treated in four different films: Pier Paulo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964); Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977); William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959); and George Stevens’ The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

There areinsightful analyses, comparisons between the various treatments, and reflections on how the movie makers use the Magi’s visit to foreshadow Christ’s Passion. Earlier in the chapter, the author provides a brief survey of the Visit of the Magi in art and popular imagination and offers some thoughts on T.S. Eliot’s 1927poem “Journey of the Magi.”

Here, then, is a rich abundance of ideas that would enliven your study or teaching of a well-known Nativity passage. And much more awaits those who add this collection to their digital library!

Dear Logos,I was elated to see that the Lange’s Commentary set has moved into the developing stage. I am one of the pre-publication purchasers of Lange’s 24-volume commentary. As I was reviewing the list of books today, I realized that the commentary on the Apocrypha is not included with this sale. I have the printed set. It contains 25 volumes with the Apocrypha as Volume XV of the Old Testament.

In the Preface, Philip Schaff wrote, “It has been deemed timely to issue, as a supplementary volume to Lange’s Bible-work (which is confined to the canonical books), a revised version of the Apocrypha, with critical and historical introductions and explanations. Homiletical hints would, of course, be superfluous for Protestant ministers and students.” The Preface was written on June 14, 1880.

Although I am a Lutheran pastor, I have appreciated having this additional commentary with my set. Please give serious consideration to adding this book to Lange’s Commentaries.

Thank you for the consideration.Jerry Peterson

Now this was news to us. A 25th volume…how could we have missed it? Clearly it was not arecent addition to the set, since it was published in 1880! This question hit particularly close to home since I wrote most of the original marketing copy for the product back when it was offered via Community Pricing.

It turns out that the publishers who reprint Lange’s commentary today have dropped the volume on the Apocrypha. I can only guess the reasons, but I suppose it was considered of little use to a largely Protestant readership and would have expanded the series beyond the tidy dozen double volumes used to contain the whole.

Once Lange’s “Lost Volume” surfaced, we had to decide what to do about it. The cost to order a copy of this rarebook and digitize the additional 680 pages was not part of our initial cost estimate.

Fortunately, the decision was not too difficult. It would be lame to publish an incomplete set, if we could possibly do the whole thing. We found a first edition copy, printed in 1880, which I’m now holding in my hands and which will soon join its 24 brethren to betyped and tagged.

The price of the collection will not be changed by the addition of this volume but we’ll feel better knowing it’s complete…and trust that you will appreciate the additional material. I know Pastor Peterson will!

Dear Daniel,

A big THANK YOU for including the 25th volume! I SO appreciate the work that Logos is doing. I NEVER expected to have a library to this extent! And I have literally run out of book space in my regular library. (And then, needless to say, the ability to have so much research at your finger tips is wonderful!)

The Top 20 list was compiled by our ministry relations team and is the product of countless conversations with customers about what really matters to them.

These are the features that get oohs and aahs when demonstrated to a live audience and that have the greatest impact on the user’s Bible study. We’ve gone out of our way to explain the benefits of each new feature and what it means for your Bible study.

Each feature is also illustrated with a screenshot and includes a link to a tutorial video (if available). Socheck it out…perhaps this is the prompt you’ve been waiting for totake your Bible study to new heights!

Why should you care about RSS? Because it’s a convenient way to receive information on topics that interest you. Things like the latest prepubs and community pricing titles from Logos, or the latest thoughts on the mind of Bob Pritchett, for example. For a list of all the Logos-related RSS feeds you can subscribe to, see Logos and RSS.

Guest blogger Mark VanDyke, formerly a Logos support rep,works in the marketing department at Logos.

Carmen Cazares-Tovar (Spanish Support) in action.

Whenever I speak with a customer service representative over the phone I can’t help but wonder…where on earth is this person? What are their working conditions like? Have they seen the light of day in the past 48 hours?

Then it hit me. People who call Logos’ customer support linemight be wondering the same thing.

For starters, Logos has three types of customer service reps: Spanish support representatives, customer support (or CS) representatives and technical support reps. CS reps are on the front lines of the Logos support team. That’s who you’ll be talking with if you need help with basic program operations like installation or product activation. If a call requires advanced intervention it will be forwarded to a technical support rep.

There are currently 27 people working in the customer support department. While many companies’ call centers resemble Industrial Revolution sweatshops, the Logos Customer Support staff actually has some of the best offices in the entire company. In addition to the charming decor and natural light their workspace features a ping pong table and copious amounts of nerf darts (which, of course, accompany the 2 or 3 nerf guns in circulation).

If you end up contacting Logos customer support, here are just a few of the people who you might be on the other end of your call.

From Left to Right Sarah Swier (Technical Support), Elizabeth Borries (CS), Mark French (Technical Support) and Adam Borries (CS).

Mike Bryant (Technical Support) and Luc Button (CS) also known around customer support as Shake’n’Bake, respectively.

Tara Everret (Customer Support) has the best view in the house.

The Logos customer support staff will tell anyone that we have the greatest customers in the world – and our customers have a lot of great things to say about them too…

“I want to tell you what a wonderful experience it was to deal with your customer service. I worked with two women who were polite, patient, kind, calm…. list goes on. (The process) was very simple because they made it that way.”–Karen from Precept Ministries

And

“I’ve had a chance to interact three times with Logos support, and they have been immediately helpful and pleasant to deal with. Anyone who has ever tried tech support for some other product knows what a big deal this is. The staff there genuinely seems to love both their product and the customers. Could it be an act? Sure…But I’m willing to believe the illusion, aren’t you?”–Brian,Dluxe’s World

It takes a certain type of person to enjoy solving software issues for 40 hours each week. Is it the chic office or the ping-pong that keep the Logos CS reps going? We asked Jerry Godfrey, Manager of Customer Support, who explains,

“When I’m being served as a customer there is no better feeling than receiving great service, and being treated with care and respect. Here at Logos we constantly work to help all of our customers as well as we possibly can. I really enjoy being a part of a team that truly enjoys making our customers happy and satisfied.”

Landon Nortonfiles this brief from the Bible Study Bus. View more road trip photos at Flickror readprevious posts from the trip.

Hello Logos blog readers…and greetings from the Bible Study Bus!!

The Bible Study Bus Road Trip: America has entered into its 3rd month and after taking the reins from Bob, the Norton Four (my wife Krissy and I together with our nearly 3-year-oldTaylor and 11-month-old Nicholas), began presenting Logos Bible Softwareat churches across Arkansas – Razorback Nation!

This year,ouraccommodations havebeen mostly KOA campgrounds, which have been really great – family friendly and fun. That’s not to say we had too much time to play. With 5 Road Trip stops the first week and radio interviews in Little Rock, our time was filled pretty quickly.

People have no idea what to expect when they show up at the church. It’s great to see their face when these Bible study tools go into action right before their eyes. I’ve been telling radio listeners to bring two pairs of socks to the presentation – because they will have one pair blown off!

The Bus rolled through the Bayou State this past week, stopping in Lake Charles for a few days and the weekend here in Lafayette. We had a little more time for fun this week and made the most of it. After having the RV worked on for regular maintenance (insert toll booth joke here), we hit the barbecue, the pool and a few local points of interest.

During one event here, we had more Spanish-speaking people show up than English-speaking and I had to have an interpreter repeat my entire presentation on the fly. It was really neat!

On Saturday, WSJY, the AFR station in Lafayette had their big fundraiser the day after our event – it’s called Freedom Fest. We pulled the Bus in and had a great time celebrating our freedom in Christ with people in the great Acadian region of Louisiana – even Bob and Larry showed up!

This week we head into Mississippi as we make our jaunt northward for a few days before going into the end-run of our month-long leg.

I hope to make some more time to write, but honestly, folks, most days I live on airplanes, shuttles and rental cars. Having my kids here to play with each night…let’s just say I love making ‘Father Time’ a major part of this awesome endeavor.

OpenBible.info just launched a new topical Bible service that is steeped in crowdsourcing-mashup-web-2.0 goodness. Since I just blogged about the “old school”What the Bible Says About… service from Logos I thought I’d give this upstart service a mini-review.

Here’s how it works: The developerscompiled a topic list using Yahoo! Related Suggestions, then searched Yahoo! for the most relevant web pages about each topic, then pulled any Bible references from those pages. So what you end up with is a list of Bible verses that are most closely associated with a particular topic across the web.

The label next to the “find” box says, “What does the Bible say about…” But I think it’s a stretchto say this service helps you find out what the Bible says about a topic. It would be more accurate to say you’re finding out what people say the Bible says about a topic. Or maybe what people say about the Bible when speaking about a topic. And by people I mean “the people.” The OpenBible.info project is truly trusting in the wisdom of crowds.

Admittedly, any topical indexto the Bible involves editorial decisions and inferences. Orville James Nave (1841-1917), who spent 14 yearsworking on his project to”…note and classify everything found in the Scriptures”, certainly did not work in a vacuum. (The New Nave’s Topical Bible used at What the Bible Says About and available inside Logos Bible Software is a revision of Orville Nave’s classic work.) But he was methodical, thoroughand consistent in his appproach to the task.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I do think there’s value to a service like the OpenBible Topical Bible.

What I like about it:

It offers current topics. If you want to find out what people say the Bible says about Harry Potter…you can.

It offers a constantly-growing list of topics. If you enter a topic that’s new to the database, the topic is added and you’ll get some initial results after a few moments of waiting for the server to do its work. I entered “Iraq War”, which was brand new to the database.

It offers a constantly-improving data set. The Helpful/Not Helpful buttons by each Bible verse or passage allow me to help fine tune the results, while the Suggest a Verse box lets me associate a verse to my topic.

Suggestions:

Allow the user to associate a new topic with an existing topic. I found later that “War” (of course) and “The War in Iraq” are both existing topics. Before adding “Iraq War” as a new entity, the service could ask, “Did you really mean ‘The War in Iraq’?” and learn from my response. In this way, I would be training the database to understand that the two terms mean the same thing.

I don’t know what method the Topical Bible service uses to identify Bible verses onweb pages, but it seems to me such an undertaking is fraught with perils. Sean Boisen has raised some good questions about this in the context of counting Scripture references in blog posts. Since the web is full of unruly data (unlike the carefully tagged bookswe work on here at Logos) the only solutions seem to be a) push people to adopt something like Bible reference microformat standards or b) develop ever-smarter verse extraction routines.

All in all this is a pretty cool service and I’m sure we’ll see more like it in the days to come.